In order to create a Smart Grid infrastructure to better manage energy resources, it will be necessary to monitor and measure energy demand at the individual points of consumption, in homes, at places of business, and at industrial sites. The focal point for electrical power distribution in homes, businesses, and factories is the load center, where the branch circuits are organized with branch circuit breakers occupying branch location slots in the load center, and connected through the circuit breakers to an incoming main power bus. The load center is one location for installing the capability to monitor and measure energy demand.
The universal installation of energy monitoring equipment in homes, businesses, and factories must be simple, practical, and not expensive. In the prior art, branch circuit monitoring systems required the installation of current sensing circuits on each individual branch circuit line and wiring a power source to each sensing circuit. Such a solution is neither simple, practical, nor inexpensive.